“The daughter of a Shoshone chief, Sacagawea was kidnapped by the Hidatsa when she was about ten years old and taken back to their village on the upper Missouri. There, she and another captive girl were purchased and wed by Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian trapper.
When Lewis and Clark engaged Charbonneau as an interpreter for their expedition in 1804, it was with the understanding that Sacagawea would also accompany them. Aside from her value as an interpreter, they expected her mere presence to speak well of them to Indians they would encounter along the way. As Clark noted in his journal, "a woman with a party of men is a token of peace."
Sacagawea carried her infant on a cradleboard as the "Corps of Discovery" headed upriver in April, 1805.
Four months later, when the expedition had reached the navigable limits of the Missouri, Lewis set out to make contact with a Shoshone band, from whom he hoped to obtain horses for their trek across the mountains. When Sacagawea arrived to serve as interpreter, she found the band was led by her older brother, Cameahwait, who had become chief on their father's death. Deeply moved by this reunion, Sacagawea might have taken advantage of such an astounding coincidence to return to her people, but instead she helped the explorers secure the horses they needed and journeyed on with them and her husband to the Pacific.
Sacagawea turned out to be incredibly valuable to the party as it traveled westward, through the territories of many new tribes. Some of these Indians, prepared to defend their lands, had never seen white men before. As Clark noted on October 19, 1805, the Indians were inclined to believe that the whites were friendly when they saw Sacagawea. A war party never traveled with a woman , especially a woman with a baby. During council meetings between Indian chiefs and the party where Shoshone was spoken, Sacagawea was used and valued as an interpreter.
On November 24, 1805, when the expedition reached the place where the Columbia River emptied into the Pacific Ocean, the captains held a vote among all the members to decide where to settle for the winter. Sacagawea’s vote, as well as the vote of the Clark’s manservant York, were counted equally with those of the captains and the men. As a result, the party stayed at a site near present day Astoria, Oregon, in Fort Clatsop, which they constructed and inhabited during the winter of 1805-1806.
While at Fort Clatsop, local Indians told the expedition of a whale that had been stranded on a beach some miles to the south. Clark assembled a group of men to find the whale and possibly obtain some whale oil and blubber, which could be used to feed the party. Sacagawea had yet to see the ocean, and after willfully asking Clark, she was allowed to accompany the group to the sea. As Captain Lewis wrote on January 6, 1806, "The Indian woman was very importunate to be permitted to go, and was therefore indulged; she observed that she had traveled a long way with us to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be seen, she thought it very hard she could not be permitted to see either." Clark himself took Sacagawea and her husband to see the ocean on January 7, 1806.
"While she was here, she learned a lot of medicine from the earth, from the ground. And I'm sure she did from her people up there in the mountains too so as they traveled along wherever they went, if they needed medicine for the cramps or the boils and the things that they had, this young woman would find those things. When they were hungry, very, very hungry, she would find nuts, and she would find roots, and she would find berries, and she would set traps and fish things and get those things and feed those men. She made a lot of clothing for them and showed them how to make their own clothing. This was a very ingenious young woman and it was serendipitous, I guess, for them to take her along. She ended up being so valuable by the contributions she made along the way".She saved the journals (May 14 &16, 1805) from floating down the Missouri River when nobody else would jump into the water. With a baby on her back she waded into the river and retrieved medical instruments, other instruments and the journals themselves. She saved them from near starvation on more than one occasion just with her skills, her native skills of digging roots and other plant specimens to feed them".
"She simply was a great presence. An Indian woman with a child on her back for all these other Indian Tribes to take note of. This could not be a war party, it had to be a party of peace".
Sacagawea
From the journals...
Tuesday, April 9, 1805
When they pull over for supper, Sacagawea immediately searches for food. She takes a sharp stick and begins digging in the ground near small piles of driftwood. She knows mice hide large quantities of roots in these locations. Soon Sacagawea gathers a good supply of what Lewis calls edible wild artichoke roots.
Wednesday May 8, 1805
As Clark and the Charbonneau family walk along the shore, Sacagawea stops and begins gathering roots along the hillside. One root is wild licorice. The captains taste a second specimen-a white appleroot, a kind of breadroot.
Tuesday, May 14,1805
During the life and death struggle, trying to save their boat and supplies from sinking and losing everything, Sacagawea remains in the back of the sinking vessel grabbing valuable articles as they float from the boat. She catches nearly everything.
Thursday, May 16, 1805.
The day is fair and warm. By 4 P.M. almost everything is dry, repacked, and ready to go. Medical supplies suffered the most damage. Other losses include seed, a small amount of gunpowder, and other culinary items. Sacagawea demonstrated fortitude and resolution equal to that of any man on board the stricken craft. She saved most of the bundles, which had been washed overboard.
Wednesday, August 14, 1805
Charbonneau strikes Sacagawea while the family is eating the evening meal. Clark reprimands him.
During the expedition’s return journey, as they passed through her homeland, Sacagawea proved a valuable guide. She remembered Shoshone trails from her childhood, and Clark praised her as his "pilot." The most important trail she recalled, which Clark described as a large road passing through a gap in the mountain, led to the Yellowstone River. Today, it is known as Bozeman Pass, Montana. The party returned to the Hidatsa-Mandan villages on August 14, 1806, marking the end of the trip for Sacagawea, Charbonneau and their boy, Jean Baptiste. When the trip was over, Sacagawea received nothing, but Charbonneau was given $500. and 320 acres of land.
In Portland, Oregon, Bismark, North Dakota, and other places, are statues honoring Bird Woman. A Montanta mountain pass, peak, and river also bear her name.
Her bravery, her fortitude and the respect she gained from the entire Corps Of Discovery, is more than what was expected. She blazed trails for all women to follow.
Sacagawea died at an early age it is believed, as there is not much readily available about her after leaving the Lewis and Clark expedition. Legends say she lived to an age of 100, other legends say she died in from complications giving birth to her daughter Lisette.
She was quiet, intelligent, obedient, and terribly brave. She truly was a GREAT AMERICAN. And in my book the GREATEST.
For those of you that have not been keeping up with the show…the GREATEST AMERICAN according to the viewing public of The Discovery Channel was (gag) Ronald Reagan. Now I would like to see him give birth, carry that kid on his back and walk over 1000 miles, leading a group of BRAVE men who could not speak your language. And THEN once there, show them how to survive the winter, where to pitch their camps, show them how to use the herbs to heal themselves and how to get back home. Nope, not Ronnie!!
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